Gay marriage Maryland: Governor v. archbishop

Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland is no Martin Luther, but the devoutly Catholic governor is directly challenging on his archbishop and church on the question of legalizing same-sex marriage.

O’Malley recently became the third Catholic governor in the past nine months — after Washington’s Christine Gregoire and New York’s Andrew Cuomo — to sign a marriage equality bill passed by his state legislature.

Kara Haney, left, and her partner of 8 years Kate Wertin, right, embrace in the Lobby Bar in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood as the Washington State Senate passes a bill that would legalize gay marriage in Washington State. (Photo by Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com)

He did so after receiving a letter from Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien that sponsoring same-sex marriage would “deeply conflicts with your faith, not to mention the best interests of our society.”

“Maryland is not New York,” added the archbishop. “We urge you not to allow your role as the leader of our state to be used in allowing the debate surrounding the definition of marriage to be determined by mere political expediency.”

O’Malley has now carried his stand a very public public step further.

The governor spoke to a national gathering of 400 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics in Baltimore. He equated the drive for same-sex marriage with goals of the largely Catholic founders of the state of Maryland.

“Th

e very reason for Maryland’s founding was for religious freedom, and at the heart of religious freedom is respect for freedom of individual conscience,” O’Malley argued. “In Maryland we were able to find a way to protect individuals’ civil marriage rights and religious freedom.”

The seventh annual Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality was sponsored by New Ways Ministry, a non-official Catholic ministry to Catholics in the LGBT community.

“I think at the end of the day, all of us want the same thing for our kids,” O’Malley added. “We want our children to grow up in caring conditions and loving homes, protected equally under the law.”

“And for many people of many different faiths, for people committed to the principle of religious freedom and individual freedom, the way forward is always found through greater respect for the equal rights of all, for the human dignity of all.

“Our success in this recent debate in the Maryland General Assembly was a success that was based on these fundamental beliefs, these fundamental principles that we share, foremost among them being our belief in the dignity of every individual.”

The debate over marriage equality in Washington has featured no direct church-state exchanges. Gregoire called Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain the night before she announced support for same-sex marriage. The state’s four bishops subsequently issued a letter opposing the “redefinition of marriage” and Archbishop Sartain testified at a State Senate hearing.

But Washington State Catholic Conference, and Maryland Catholic Conference, are supporting referendum drives that would put marriage equality to a statewide vote in the November election.

O’Malley said a referendum in Maryland is likely, but said he believes voters will “come down on the side of human dignity” and vote to affirm the law.